Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Peace in the Middle East

There is much to be concerned about in the Middle East - more now than ever. If you have a strong enough spiritual constitution you can view some of the atrocities of Saddam Housein now available in some sizeable video downloads. This is what Islamic law can look like. Indications are that these are not isolated to Iraq. The Taliban engaged in similar activities in Afghanistan. Sudan looks like this to some degree. Radical Muslims are not the only ones guilty of such horrendous brutality. Uganda is wrought with a rebellion that frightens young children into fleeing on foot for miles to "safe" areas where they sleep on the street until danger passes.

As if we didn't already know it, they're gunning for the US. But now they're not saying one thing in Arabic and another in English. Now Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is openly calling for the defeat of the US in order to destroy Israel. And he has nukes.

There is good news about the Middle East, however. Iranians don't generally agree with their President. Many Iranians are amiable toward western culture. Not only that, but most Iranians are Persian, not Arabic. However, there is a significant minority of Arabs in Iran and President Ahmadinejad has reneged on promises to share oil profits with them. They have become angry enough that some of them have attempted to assassinate him.

Over in Israel, voting has finished in the Palestinian election. While the votes are counted, initial exit polls indicate that the more benign Fatah party is favored over the violent Hamas among Palestinians. While the old media favors the outspoken Hamas in their reporting, a majority of Palestinians do not appear to assent to the violence.

We must be aware of the threat from the Middle East because of the weapons they propose to aim at us. However, we must keep in mind that a significan number of Middle Eastern people do not favor violence and many of them do not approve of their violent leaders. We have only recently freed a grateful Afghanistan and Iraq from oppressive and violent rule. The indication is that others are hopeful for similar liberation - despite mischaracterization by the old media.